The Detroit Beautification Project assembled artist’s from around the globe. With the the common goal to bring vibrancy back to one of America’s greatest cities.
Presented By Montana Cans, The Seventh Letter, 1xRun, Contra Projects

An off the cuff production with Revok started on my second day in Detroit. No sketches or real game plan, just good times painting. A few onlookers asked me what’s going on in the wall. The response was varied based on my mood, but the explanation that I settled with with was that the beast was Detroit, and chicks from the suburbs flock to his dangerous ass. The want action, they want to be in the belly of the beast. Naah meen?

As the chill of winter has given way to the warm hues of spring here in Detroit, we’re excited to unveil our most recent public arts project that will bring over a dozen of the world’s premier graffiti artists into the city for a series of murals in the neighborhoods that need them the most.

We are presenting this never before seen image of a piece REVOK created in a now demolished church back in 2009 during his first visit to Detroit. In what is commonplace in the world of graffiti & street art, an artist will go to great lengths creating a piece of work in certain location, only to have the works lifespan cut short by city clean up crews, over zealous and mentally disturbed vigilantes or rival artists… Or in this case a demolition wrecking ball. The work often lives on only in the documentation of a few, or in this case one image.

To coincide with the first phase of the project we’re excited to release a series of prints with several of the participating artists including RISK, SEVER, STEEL, REYES, DMOTE, WANE, CES, REVOK, Tristan Eaton, Dabs Myla, 123 Klan and POSE.

For the first RUN of the Detroit Beautification Project we’re excited to present our very first print by REVOK. His vision for the Detroit Beautification Project is to uplift communities and brighten the day of the residents of the great City of Detroit.

Born in Riverside, Ca. in 1977 Los Angeles based REVOK discovered art through his fathers collection of 60′s & 70′s album covers, comic books, and skateboarding. In 1990 REVOK began sneaking out of the 2nd story window of his parents home to write graffiti around his neighborhood… 22 years later not much has changed despite numerous arrests, Jail time and fines in the U.S. and overseas.

REVOK enjoys traveling and painting graffiti, He is currently the target of a political war against Graffiti and street art led by Los Angeles city attorney Carmen Trutanich and the L.A. Sheriffs dept. REVOK’s work explores the struggle between opposing perspectives that is perpetual action around us in our shared common spaces.

In 2011 REVOK was featured in MOCA LA’s in the “Art in the streets” Exhibition. The Pasadena Musuem of Contemporary art’s “Street Cred”, “PERSEVERENCE” at KNOWN gallery and “TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY” in Hamburg’s Vicious gallery.

It seems that I’m on my way to having a career out of painting other writers work!

On a last minute request by REVOK, I headed down to Miami a day early to paint a “We Own The Night” outside of the Underbelly show opening in Miami. The wall I painted is based off of what Revok and Ceaze painted a while back in the tunnels for the Underbelly Project.

Arriving to paint at 8pm and starting work around 11pm the night before the show opening, I only had a few hours to paint the font with a cherry picker.

I did my best to pull something together half decent. It’s never been my thing to paint angled and measured fonts, so instinctually I did whatever I could to break out of that. With slightly off allignment, the letters are no way near as precise as something Revok would paint, but it did it’s job to bring attention to the venue.

After torturing myself for several hours painting a font on a lift, I rewarded myself by painting my own version of Revok’s partytime wolf dude…

(above) Revok’s original wolf dude painted on a street spot in Hollywood.

This video documents the process of the artists getting ready for their show at KnownGallery titled “Perseverance” in August of 2012. Then traveling the art cross country from Detroit Michigan to Los Angeles CA, stopping along the way to paint and take in all America has to offer.

Introducing the third of four Fall 2011 Tee drops that will be coming out over the next month. These items will be available here on our online store and at one of our authorized dealers across the globe.